1. Field of Invention
This application is directed to an electronic data trace annotation system that supports annotation of data traces. In particular, this invention is directed to the creation of freeform digital ink annotations on data traces.
2. Description of Related Art
The standard approach to annotating data traces is to annotate directly on a hard copy of the data trace. As an example, a polygraph examiner works with a continuous paper trace that records an examinee""s physiological responses to questions. As the examiner asks questions, the examiner annotates the paper trace to indicate such things as when a question is asked and also to provide reference annotations and comments about the data trace. These annotations help the examiner correlate the questions to the physiological responses and to interpret the data in real time. Another example of annotation of a data trace is the annotations that a doctor makes on a paper trace of a cardiogram.
Conventional ink annotation systems support associating ink with the underlying media. However, these systems do not support freeform digital ink annotations on a visual display of a data trace. Furthermore, these systems do not manage the storage of the data trace based upon freeform digital ink annotations. Although the systems described in Marquee: A Tool For Real-Time Video Logging, by Weber et al., In Proceedings of CHI ""94, ACM Press (April 1994) and Dynomite: A Dynamically Organized Ink and Audio Notebook, by Wilcox et al., In Proceedings of CHI ""97, ACM Press, (1994) associate freeform digital ink annotations with time, the ink is associated with the time of the annotation and not the time of the underlying events. While Dynomite allows users to select regions in an audio data trace by dragging endpoints on an audio toolbar, it does not permit freeform digital ink annotation on the data trace.
A system known as xe2x80x9cClearBoardxe2x80x9d, which is disclosed in Integration of Interpersonal Space and Shared Workspace: ClearBoard design and experiments, by Ishii, et al., ACM Trans. Inf. Syst. II, 4, (1993), pp 349-375, uses a metaphor of xe2x80x9ctalking through and drawing on a transparent glass window.xe2x80x9d Users of the ClearBoard system can draw and view video on the same display. However, ClearBoard does not present an automatic data trace that simultaneously presents data values for multiple times and does not correspond the freeform digital ink annotation to the data underlying the data trace in any way.
The present invention is a method and system for annotating and managing data traces such as audio traces, barograms, electrocardiograms, electroencephalograms, electrograms, electromyograms, kymograms, polygraphic traces, seismograms, thermograms, etc. The system and method of this invention provides the ability to annotate directly on a computer rendition of a data trace. The annotation may be made as the data trace is being captured, during playback or simply as the data trace is viewed statically. The data traces are generally generated from streams of data which change over time. Data traces are generally persistent records of the values of the data stream. Conventionally, data traces are two dimensional, the two dimensions being the time and the amplitude of the changing value. However, it is to be understood that the method and system of the present invention is equally applicable to a data trace having more than two dimensions such as a polygraph, or the like, that may have parallel axes for each sensed characteristic of the polygraph examinee.
The system and method of the invention present a data trace on a pen computer and support freeform digital ink annotation on that data trace. The system can automatically select regions in the data trace based upon the position of the annotation, can automatically summarize data traces, and can manage the storage of the data of a data trace based upon the freeform digital ink annotations.